Two poems for Gettysburg

By Catherine Woodard

Updated 2026 GMT (0426 HKT) November 19, 2013

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Photos:Photographs of the Gettysburg Address

Photographs of the Gettysburg Address – A crowd gathers to hear President Abraham Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. Lincoln is seen in the center, just to the left of the bearded man with a top hat.

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Photos:Photographs of the Gettysburg Address

Photographs of the Gettysburg Address – Lincoln gave the speech at the dedication of what is now called the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

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Photos:Photographs of the Gettysburg Address

Photographs of the Gettysburg Address – The crowd gathers for the dedication of the cemetery.

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Photos:Photographs of the Gettysburg Address

Photographs of the Gettysburg Address – The famous speech, which starts with "Four score and seven years ago," was delivered four months after Union forces defeated the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg. That battle was considered a turning point of the Civil War.

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Photos:Photographs of the Gettysburg Address

Photographs of the Gettysburg Address – Politician Edward Everett delivered a speech just before Lincoln delivered his address that day. Everett later wrote to the president that his two-hour speech did not compare to Lincoln's two-minute speech.

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Photos:Photographs of the Gettysburg Address

Photographs of the Gettysburg Address – There are five known manuscript copies of the Gettysburg Address, all written by Lincoln himself.

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Photos:Photographs of the Gettysburg Address

Photographs of the Gettysburg Address – Lincoln poses for a photograph on November 8, 1863, days before he delivered the famous speech.

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Editor's note: Catherine Woodard is a poet and former newspaper and new media journalist. Woodard worked to return Poetry in Motion to the NYC subways and is a board member of the Poetry Society of America.

Gettysburg -- that long, bloody battle in July 1863 is forever seared into the American psyche and continues to draw visitors to its historic field in Pennsylvania. Among them is poet Catherine Woodard, who visited Gettysburg last summer, the 150th anniversary of that decisive Civil War battle.